Is your fundraising 100% "accurate"?
What exactly would complete accuracy look like?
A recent study in the UK (published at Sociological Research Online) pokes a stick into an issue some fundraisers spend a lot of energy worrying about.
The study, as reported by Third Sector magazine -- Homelessness charities should stick with stereotypical images of beneficiaries, report says -- asked subjects what homeless people look like.
Subjects overwhelmingly identified bearded older men who sleep on the streets.
If you've ever done fundraising related to homelessness, this won't surprise you. That's the imagery that works.
The "problem" is that older men who sleep outside aren't "typical" among the homeless. They're something like 10% of the homeless population. Young people and moms with kids are far more common. Sleeping rough isn't typical.
But when people think of the homeless, they think of the bearded old men. And when your fundraising features photos of young people or families, donors stay away.
This doesn't have to be a problem. You could just be realistic and use images that work. But a lot of fundraisers aren't comfortable with that solution. They'd rather use images of typical homeless people, for one or both of these reasons:
- They want to "educate" donors to be more deeply informed about the issue.
- They think it's more honest. In fact, a commenter on the article said, "Using 'stereotypical' images is being deceptive, and essentially lying...."
And that's where the problem starts.
First, direct mail, email, and all other direct-response fundraising channels are insanely ineffective educational media. They simply don't work to teach. So if you use images that are less effective for fundraising in the belief that you're trading some of your income for a more educated public, you'll end up with neither.
As for the "lying" charge, anyone can set their own standards, but let's get real: Showing a photo of something that's real, but not most common is far from a lie. If there were no bearded older homeless men at all, then it would be something like a lie to show them. But they're really there. Real humans who are really homeless.
If you're a fundraiser, your job is to raise funds. It's not to change the way people think -- though the ones who donate are going to be far more willing and able to change their thinking than those you fail to reach because your fundraising doesn't make sense to them. It's also not your job to bolster your own sense of reality.
If the imagery that does the job makes you queasy or unhappy for whatever reason, I don't think fundraising is where you should be.
Effective fundraisers meet donors where they are. Not where they want them to be.
(This post first appeared on April 6, 2015.)
from Future Fundraising Now http://bit.ly/2Zg7PEK
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